The church of Santa Maria Maddalena, usually known as La Maddalena, is a religious building in the city of Venice, located in the Cannaregio district and is one of the best known examples of Venetian neoclassical architecture.
There is news of a religious building erected in 1222, owned by the
patrician Baffo (or Balbo) family, in the same place. Once peace was
established between Genoa and Venice in 1356, Saint Magdalene's day
became a holiday in the mid-14th century by decision of the Venetian
Senate and the church was enlarged, including a watchtower used as a
bell tower.
Beginning in 1763, the church was entirely rebuilt, with
a circular plan, based on a design by Tommaso Temanza, who shifted its
orientation towards the campo. The works ended in 1790 under the
direction of Giannantonio Selva. In 1810 it was revoked from the role of
parish church and in 1820 it was closed, to be reopened as an oratory.
In 1888 the bell tower, now unsafe, was demolished.
It is
currently a rector's church dependent on the parish of San Marcuola
(vicariate of Cannaregio-Estuario, patriarchate of Venice).
The church has a rather unusual circular plan for Venice (the only other example is that of San Simeon Piccolo), with a hemispherical dome roof, clearly inspired by the architecture of ancient Rome and in particular by the Pantheon, from which it takes the steps outside. The reference also goes to Venetian buildings such as the Salute and San Simeon Piccolo, the latter the work of Giovanni Scalfarotto, Tommaso Temanza's master and uncle. Temanza's ashes rest in his church, just beyond the side entrance.
The portal is of great architectural value, which is actually a shortened pronaos, preceded by a short staircase and formed by a high triangular tympanum supported by two pairs of semi-columns with Ionic capitals and entablature. Above the entrance door there is a lunette with an all-seeing eye within a triangle intertwined with a circle in bas-relief, often read as a Masonic symbol (it seems that the Baffo (or Balbo) family belonged to the Templar order). Externally to the apse, a fifteenth-century bas-relief was set in the marble facing, depicting a Madonna with Child and saints.
Inside, the circular plan is transformed into a hexagonal one with
the addition of four side chapels (the other two sides are formed by the
main chapel and the main entrance), framed by round arches. The square
presbytery is developed in width with two lateral exedras, recalling a
Venetian tradition begun by the Redeemer. The entablature of the large
hemispherical dome with lantern is supported by twelve paired Ionic
columns, between which there are semicircular niches on two levels, the
upper ones occupied by statues representing Saints Magdalene and Agnes
and the prophets Isaiah and David. The interior is conceived by Temanza
as a large white space, finished in marmorino.
The church
preserves important eighteenth-century paintings, including the Last
Supper by Giandomenico Tiepolo and the Apparition of the Virgin to Saint
Simon Stock by Giuseppe Angeli as well as other eighteenth-century
canvases by the school of Giovanni Battista Piazzetta. In 2005, in the
course of restorations consisting in the removal of the whitewash, the
whitewashing that was given in the 19th century, to bring out the
original eighteenth-century marmorino, a monochrome allegorical fresco
of Giandomenico Tiepolo representing the Faith and which originally
overlooked the painting of the Last Supper.